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Why Koreans ask what year you were born

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Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#301

Post by fxtentacle »

quesera wrote: post #252
fxtentacle wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Typically the girl will pretend the guy to be older, if that isn't the case. That's why girls in movies and K-Pop groups always shout "Oppa!". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwmSjveL3Lc And you might remember the Oppa that is Gangnam Style: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

> And you might remember the Oppa that is Gangnam Style: My cultural awareness, which is distinctly non-Asian, assumed that this "Oppa" had something to do with horses.

What a brilliant comment :) I'm not sure if you're joking, but it certainly brightened up my day.

That Gangnam Style song is about riding and the associated up and down motion, just not related to horses. In that scene where he's watching the horses, he's singing:

"A true lady who is warm and human during the day, who is classy and knows how to enjoy a cup of coffee. But when night comes, her heart gets hot..." and then you see the horse moving its head up and down and he sings: "A lady who is kinky in that way"

And then you see him with 2 girls in his arms and he's using rather suggestive language:

"A man who one-shots ... his coffee. A man who won't let things cool down ... A man who bursts when night comes ... his heart. A man with few muscles and he is bulging ... with ideas."

Also, if you pay attention to it, you can hear that both gangnam songs are littered with audio samples of him and her moaning, e.g:

https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0?feature=shared&t=151

https://youtu.be/wcLNteez3c4?feature=shared&t=68

And then there's the famous elevator scene where his lyrics are: "A good woman appears calm, but knows how to have fun. She's reasonable and when it's the right time, she will let her hair down ..."

https://youtu.be/9bZkp7q19f0?feature=shared&t=114

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#302

Post by unstppbl »

I met a Korean classmate while studying Chinese together in China. We really hit it off, and on our first date she unexpectedly asked how old I was. When I told her I was a couple of years older, she gently explained that we couldn’t be together. Well.. I couldn’t understand it, feelings were mutual, it was like we were meant for each other, and all that was thrown because of age difference, how stupid.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#303

Post by nc0 »

make3 wrote: post #46
bambax wrote: post #6

> The younger person also addresses the older person, usually with a title or another word that fits their relationship, but not their name. Only the older person addresses the younger one with their name. (There can be more nuance.) I love this. I'm an old French guy and still can't quite accept when srangers in an email (or a machine, a system, a web form) adress me using my first name. Being "on a first name basis…

I feel like tu vs vous is extra annoying in French when you're speaking to someone who's not a stranger. I have no desire to judge if you think you're too famous of eg a professor for me to say tu, your success doesn't create a hierarchy between us, and it's annoying if you think so. I much prefer English for that.

It's not really a question of fame but more of respect, we are not relatives, so you do not use tu.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#304

Post by haarolean »

unsignedint wrote: post #245

I despise the social construct that ties respect to age. As someone who’s biologically Japanese—and coming from a culture that shares similar values with Korean society in this regard—I often find it frustrating when dealing with other Japanese people. Some individuals will ask your age just so they can justify talking down to you. I’ve even had cases where someone was polite at first, but the moment they realized th…

Nowadays it seems more of a coping mechanism for fading relevance rather than respecting the actual competence.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#305

Post by wink »

smartmic wrote: post #67
tauchunfall wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I find it super irritating when people address me by my last name. Me too. There are still German companies where coworkers address others with Herr or Frau followed by their last name. I find it also interesting how people that learn German understand the difference between the "you" in formal ("sie") and informal ("du") version, but often don't understand in which context du use them. In most cases you can use the…

It's a generational thing. There has definitely been a change in recent years, especially the younger generation can no longer do much with the formal “Sie”, but of course they know it. I am 46 years old and have grown up with and been familiar with the “Du/Sie” dichotomy from the very beginning. It also has many advantages and offers clear relationships: There is no ambiguity as to which pronouns I use to address so…

I think it also highly depends on where you're from.

Traditionally in Bavaria you'd have used "Du/Ihr" in shops or on the streets colloquially even decades ago, and yet from time to time you'd ran into people (always from Northern Germany) who seemed very surprised you'd not use "Sie/Ihnen".

Of course I'm overgeneralizing and I think I've had like 2 jobs in my life (since the late 90s) where some people were called Herr/Frau X instead of the just the first name, be it IT or not.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#306

Post by GreyMolecules »

NL807 wrote: post #271
GreyMolecules wrote: post #42

This article does not address another layer that makes the Korean age system complicated: the "빠른" system. It refers to people born in January or February who, due to the school cutoff being in March, often enter school a year early and socially identify with those born in the previous calendar year. For example, if I'm "빠른95", which indicates that I was born in 1995 between January and the end of February, I get to…

No disrespect to Korean people, but as an outsider, this kind of gymnastics for establishing a time point for something seems really absurd to me.

As a native Korean speaker who has used this language for more than two good decades with Koreans, I'd count this as the primary reason why I love hanging out with English and Chinese speakers these days.

The language barrier between two Korean strangers (irony) is much thicker than when I talk to a passerby in English or Chinese asking for directions.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#307

Post by walthamstow »

anthk wrote: post #299
bityard wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tangent: My father's family is German and all of the males in the family only used their middle name for everything except legal and financial documents. For example, Carl Hans Schmidt (to pick a semi-made-up example) would introduce himself as Hans to everyone he met, and the family would refer to him as Hansi. I always wondered if that was a German (or regional) tradition, or a fun family quirk. (The males have all…

Spanish too. Francisco Javier -> Javi, or maybe Paco (Francisco), but Javi would be the obvious case. Francisco -> Paco from Saint Francis holding a Pater Comunitatis title in Latin. But, as a weirder case: José María -> Chema Luis María -> Luisma Juan Manuel -> Juanma José Manuel -> Chema/Josema Juan Ramón -> Juanra María José (women's name) -> Marijose

My personal favourite is Juan Carlos -> Juanca. Sounds great in British English.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#308

Post by bmicraft »

lukan wrote: post #298
bmicraft wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just the fact that they lived so much longer. That's not a reason, you're just repeating the question. "Having lived long" is a value neutral statement of fact. How do you derive value from that? > And are usually more wise in life experience. So is that your true/only reason, a statistical probability of "knowing more"?

"That's not a reason, you're just repeating the question. "Having lived long" is a value neutral statement of fact. How do you derive value from that?" It is a reason in itself. I don't know if I manage to live 10 years more, not speaking of 50 years more. Living long is a achievent on its own, not be brought down early by life. Because there is a lot that life has to offer to bring you down. That requires a minimum…

~99% of people manage that, it's like the worst possible indicator for the wisdom or quality of a person.

All while at the same time putting everybody who didn't get the chance yet below them. It feels very arbitrary - there are a lot of better indicators than age for that.

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#309

Post by lukan »

bmicraft wrote: post #308
lukan wrote: post #298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"That's not a reason, you're just repeating the question. "Having lived long" is a value neutral statement of fact. How do you derive value from that?" It is a reason in itself. I don't know if I manage to live 10 years more, not speaking of 50 years more. Living long is a achievent on its own, not be brought down early by life. Because there is a lot that life has to offer to bring you down. That requires a minimum…

~99% of people manage that, it's like the worst possible indicator for the wisdom or quality of a person. All while at the same time putting everybody who didn't get the chance yet below them. It feels very arbitrary - there are a lot of better indicators than age for that.

Maybe lets have a talk in 50 years about it?

Re: Why Koreans ask what year you were born

#310

Post by Leftium »

readthenotes1 wrote: post #141

'Using “you” in Korean is quite interesting since the direct translation 너 / neo is often too rude.' That makes me wonder how the preferred third person pronoun movement works in Korea...

It doesn't really exist because Korean pronouns don't have any gender attached to them.
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